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By DE Editors

April 17, 2019

Formlabs says LFS 3D printing is an advanced form of stereolithography (SLA), which uses a flexible tank and increased laser resolution to reduce the forces of the peel process.

Formlabs shipped its first desktop 3D printer in 2012, and has shipped more than 50,000 units. The company says more than 40 million parts have been printed with its products to date. The new models extend the capabilities of the Form 2 with more detailed print quality and the ability to chain multiple printers for production printing.

Benefits of the LFS process, according to Formlabs, include:

improved detail and surface finish thanks to the flexible resin tank, which reduces forces on parts while printing;

The LFS print process behind the Form 3 is built to scale: Form 3L uses two LPUs to offer five times the build volume and two times the laser power of the Form 3.

In addition to the new hardware, Formlabs also announced a new material, Draft Resin. Formlabs says it prints 300 microns layer lines and is three to four times faster than other standard resins, making it suited for rapid prototyping.